Plan, promote and host successful Martial Art competitions

Post navigation

A couple of weeks ago a bunch of friends and I were out for a mate’s birthday. We were talking about the gym (as alpha male guys do) and one guy said he could do 100 press ups, and still have energy to do more! Immediately I was sceptical and didn’t really believe it. He doesn’t have a bad physique but a 100 press ups is a lot! Anyway before we moved on to TGI Friday’s for our meal, he dropped down and started doing his “press ups”… as you can probably guess he had very bad form/technique. I can only describe what I saw as him “humping” the floor (to be fair if no-one has shown you the proper form how can you know what to do?). Anyway I stopped him and showed him the proper technique: arm’s locked, bum in line with your back, lowering yourself down to a fist’s height off the floor, back up to arm’s locked (and repeat).

During our meal the conversation carried on… he said that he could do 100 proper press ups before we broke up for Easter (three weeks away). I bet he couldn’t, so we agreed that if he did it, I would need to take my top off and do as many press ups as I could in the middle of our University campus during a peak time. If he failed, then he would need to do it.

There is one week to go, and from what I hear he is only managing 30 or so press ups 😀

Out of interest can any of you (the readers) do 100 press ups (keeping proper form)? I youTubed it and haven’t been too impressed.

I believe that training in the gym (lifting weights) helps develop your strength in sparring, for any Martial Art. However, I have always avoided doing leg weights (squats, calf raises and leg press etc) because I do not want to lose flexibility in my kicking.

So firstly, do you think you lose flexibility if you build up the muscles in your legs? And what would you suggest for developing kicking power/leg strength without losing flexibility?

Great fighters need more than just technique, power and speed. They also need a good dynamic strategy. Strategy ought to be tailored to a specific opponent or situation. It is also good to have a “default strategy” – a strategy you automatically revert to without thinking about it. In my opinion, the best method of this is continuous attacking (some followers of Kung Fu also adopt this approach). When you are hit, automatically hit back nonstop until your opponent is no longer a threat. This will minimize the damage to yourself.

This line of attack relies on the use of combinations of techniques, not just the one hit wonders which often miss. This is one of the reasons why I think TKD (and other martial arts which practice patterns/forms/katas) is better than kickboxing. TKD teaches patterns (a sequence of movements against an imaginary opponent) which can be adapted for use in default continuous sparring.One advantage of this strategy is that for the majority of the time, you are in the dominant position. If you land your first attack, then your opponent will likely be hurt or stunned, but even if you miss, your opponent is prone to be “on the back foot.” They will be reacting rather than acting, which means you get to dictate the fight.

Obviously, this strategy should be used with caution. You shouldn’t go running in all gung ho. Timing is everything. Pick your moment to attack carefully, as kicking and punching thin air is just a waste of energy.